HMP Lindholme

HMP Lindholme Prison education standalone progress monitoring visit report

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Name of lead inspector: Charles Searle, Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Address:

Bawtry Road Hatfield Woodhouse Doncaster DN7 6EE Progress monitoring visit: HMP Lindholme, 29 and 30 June 2021

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Ofsted context and focus of visit

On 17 March 2020, all Ofsted routine inspections were suspended due to the COVID- 19 pandemic. As part of our phased return to routine inspections of education, skills and work activities in prisons and Young Offender Institutions (YOIs), Ofsted is carrying out progress monitoring visits. The visit was conducted by Ofsted alone without HMI Prisons. The visit was conducted on site. At the time of the visit, the establishment was at stage 3 of Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Services’ (HMPPS) recovery roadmap and had been at that stage for six weeks.

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Ofsted context and focus of visit

Progress monitoring visits aim to inform prisoners, employers and government on how establishments are meeting the education and skills needs of all prisoners during this period and how leaders are planning to reinstate a full education, skills and work curriculum. The focus of these visits is on the theme set out below. A progress judgement is made against the theme. That progress judgement will be one of the following: insufficient, reasonable or significant progress.

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Reasonable progress

Leaders and managers took the strategic decision to ensure that prisoners were able to continue with and start qualifications throughout the different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the prison’s mission to equip prisoners with the skills and behaviours they require to stop them from reoffending has been sustained.

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Reasonable progress

Teachers developed educational packs for every qualification that was available to prisoners at the time when they went into lockdown due to the pandemic. The quality and content of the packs are of a good standard. Teachers provide constructive feedback that identifies errors and shows prisoners how not to repeat them. They run coaching sessions in the accommodation units, where they have set up small classrooms that enable prisoners to achieve their qualifications and motivate them to participate in further learning.

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Reasonable progress

Managers set up an effective system for communicating with prisoners about their learning through a mixture of in-cell telephony and written messages distributed through teachers when they visit the units. Prisoners report that teachers respond promptly to their requests for advice.

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Reasonable progress

Teachers have carried out assessments on those prisoners who restarted courses after a break in their learning during the initial stage of the lockdown to establish what they could remember and what they had forgotten. They give prisoners the time and support to retrieve their lost learning before re-embarking on the rest of Progress monitoring visit: HMP Lindholme, 29 and 30 June 2021 their course. However, some prisoners who have only partially completed a qualification at another establishment prior to entering the prison during lockdown do not always receive the relevant help and referral they need to finish these qualifications.

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Reasonable progress

Prisoners who are studying vocational subjects have completed the underpinning theoretical knowledge units of the qualifications while studying in their cells through work packs. Managers have planned that prisoners will be able to finish the more technical components of the qualifications when they gain access to workshops.

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Reasonable progress

Managers have well-considered plans for the return of prisoners to classrooms in the education centre when the prison enters the next stage of the recovery roadmap. They have prioritised the early return of those prisoners who need more intensive support to complete their qualifications, those who have struggled with in-cell learning and those who are near the end of their programmes. To maximise the numbers attending education, they plan to combine face-to-face teaching with the continuation of in-cell education.

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Reasonable progress

Leaders and managers have limited the number of prisoners who can return to work in industries due to the lack of staff available to move prisoners safely from their units to workshops across this large site. Access to available work has been prioritised by its essential nature, such as in the kitchens and waste management, and whether it is attached to an external contract, such as the flat rack workshop. Plans are in place to more than double the numbers in work when restrictions are further eased.

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Reasonable progress

Leaders and managers have worked effectively with a number of employers during restrictions to develop projects aimed at enabling prisoners to develop the skills that these employers need for their businesses. For example, plans are well advanced with a company to set up the manufacture of prefabricated housing units in the prison’s construction workshop.

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Reasonable progress

Managers have successfully reduced the significant backlog of outstanding inductions and initial information, advice and guidance sessions for prisoners. Induction sessions provide most prisoners with a useful range of information to establish their starting points and allocate them to a relevant activity. Those prisoners who are nearing release receive useful support with job and further training applications.

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Reasonable progress

In industries, the completion of the recently introduced skills assessment is not used well to support training delivery. Information on prisoners’ employment experience and career aspirations is not passed on routinely to instructors so that they can plan prisoners’ training in workshops. Prisoners receive little or no development of their English and mathematics skills once they commence work.

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Reasonable progress

Staff promptly identify those prisoners with learning disabilities and/or difficulties at induction. This early identification is enhanced by the productive working Progress monitoring visit: HMP Lindholme, 29 and 30 June 2021 relationships between different prison functions. For example, the education and healthcare departments cooperate effectively to meet prisoners’ learning needs.

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Reasonable progress

Teaching and support staff are appropriately qualified and experienced to help prisoners with a range of support needs. Teachers provide prisoners with a suitable range of support that includes one-to-one sessions. Prisoners benefit from relevant adjustments, such as the use of coloured paper and overlays.

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Recommendations

◼ Leaders and managers should ensure that sufficient staffing is available so that more prisoners can return to work in industries as soon as it is safe to do so.

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Recommendations

◼ Induction and information, advice and guidance staff need to identify those prisoners who enter the prison from previous establishments with unfinished qualifications and give them the opportunity to complete them.

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Recommendations

◼ Leaders and managers should improve the arrangements for ensuring that information on prisoners’ previous work experience and career aspirations is used to help plan training in prison workshops.

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Recommendations

◼ Education staff need to plan how to support working prisoners with the continued development of their English and mathematical skills. Progress monitoring visit: HMP Lindholme, 29 and 30 June 2021 regulates and inspects to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Recommendations

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Recommendations

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Recommendations

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Recommendations

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